Does the national media understand why KY fans are tired of Tubby?

My thoughts exactly.

 

It's his first year there, Headbutt. I don't think he's ready for UK, but it's not like the guy's built a career by coaching a middling UMass team.

And let's not pull this "Kentucky fans don't know shit" stuff. Coaches have (likely, because I'm not going to research it) been fired with better records than Tubby has.

 

Can you all at least humor me with an explanation?

What could possibly be worse?

We're moving fast towards irrelevancy in the college basketball world; you could argue we're already there. We're in third place in the SEC East and will likely finish fourth. We're not one of the top 3 programs right now in a conference that we've owned.

What? Can we miss the NCAA tournament? This is UK. As arrogant as it sounds, losing in the first/second round and missing the tournament are about equal.

And FH, Ford has won wherever he's been. I'm not saying he'd be the leading candidate, but I don't think UK would be "too arrogant to interview" a midmajor coach, esp. him or Pelphrey.

You can call it scholarship limitations, whatever. I call it a coach that doesn't fit into this program. If he's not willing to bust his ass on the recruiting trail or change the way he coaches basketball (when it is painfully obvious that it's not working), why are the fans faulted for wanting someone who will at least pretend that they care?

 

This is a lot like the Larry Coker situation in Miami that went down this year.
Underperforming ... out-recruited ... and not winning when it matters (March).

It never helps when your talent leaves early for the NBA (Rondo), but such is life when you recruit the best players in the country.

Kentucky hoops has to be tops because the football team blows, and there's no other pro sports nearby.

I followed Coker much closer, which is why i was saying he's done after the season opening loss to FSU (i was ripped for it, but oh well) ... but are you sure Kentucky is a bubble team? Have you checked their RPI? 8. 2nd toughest sked in the country. Only 3-7 vs. Top 50 teams, but that's better than Memphis.

Kentucky just doesn't have any guards, and probably will be bounced in the first or second round. Who are they suggesting take over the program?

 

National titles? Did I miss another one? Or one he won with guys he brought in?


Here's my beef with Tubby. Every year he fucking yaps on and on about how the team will be more exciting. How it will run and gun and be uptempo. He recruits players that play that style, selling them a bill of goods.

And when the season starts? They're playing a half-court offense, AGAIN, with players who aren't suited to it. It's WHY they struggle in the offense, because none of them are suited to it. And Tubby refuses to either recruit to his style or style to his recruits.

 

Headbutt, that's because the national media played it out that UK fans didn't like Smith.  For the majority of his career here, Smith has been popular.  It has been a small vocal minority that didn't like him, but most UK fans liked him.

You want to know why we don't like him now?  Watch the 1998 team.  Watch how they played basketball.  Now, watch how we have played basketball since the end of 2004.  It's been shitty, it's been unbearable, and there's been no reason for it.

And don't feed me the bullshit about parity and the way the game has changed.  If it was like that, Duke and UNC wouldn't be sustaining programs the way they are.  They're doing it, and UK should be doing it too.

But they're not because of the unwillingness of their coach to bust his ass recruiting or change his style of basketball to one that is more productive.

UK scored 2 points in 10 minutes yesterday, and Smith blamed the defense for the loss.  Is he retarded?  Does he watch the games?

And A_F, guards are hardly the reason for UK's struggles.  Kentucky's problems are from their lack of a capable front court.  Thomas and Perry combined for 2 pts and 2 rebs in 30 minutes yesterday.  Perry Stevenson scored 2 points and 3 rebs in 9 minutes.  Yet Tubby refuses to take him off the bench.

And why don't they have a capable frontcourt?  Because Corey Brewer was too skinny.  Because we lost out on Tyler Smith, Tyler Hansbrough, Tasmin Mitchell, Brandon Rush, Brandan Wright, Thaddeus Young, etc etc etc because a) we don't get in the door fast enough and b) they see that no matter how productive they are as freshman, they're going to sit behind shitty ass seniors like Perry and Thomas.

And Rondo wouldn't have done a thing for this team.  He was an absolute cancer.

 

I'm not sure you were really asking the question in the thread title as much as you were answering it.

 

In 1997, UK took a look at Marshall University's coach. He had been wildly successful at MU, proven himself as a solid recruiter, and was on the fast track to a big-time college basketball job.

But UK decided he wasn't ready.

His name was Billy Donovan, and apparently, he was ready.

 

Carolina made a coaching change.

And that was the year Coach K "sat out."

And those were one or two season things. Kentucky has had five seasons since 1998 that weren't even close to Kentucky-caliber (2000-2002, 2006, 2007).

And while Donovan may not have been absolutely ready, what has he done at UF that would suggest he would have done worse than Tubby has?

And by the way, Donovan has done one major thing Tubby refuses to do--adapt. He wasn't winning with pampered babies like Walsh and Roberson, so he hired Larry Shyatt and changed his approach a little. Added defense, made his teams tougher and turned them into winners.

Tubby refuses to do that.